Cold in the botanical garden

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Here is an exercise that seems difficult at first glance, but which is not really that difficult if you know what you can paint quickly and carelessly, respectively slowly and accurately.

What colors to choose

As always, I have chosen a few colors, it is a good way to get a cohesive coloring in a painting. With many different colors, it tends to be scattered. To paint this exercise you need at least one blue and one brown, with these two you can mix gray and black and both brown are in the picture so no more colors are needed. I chose to add a red color to create a little atmosphere in the background.

My choice of colors is Cobalt Blue. raw umbra and cadmium red. You can use other colors, however I would recommend a blue color with a bit of character, avoid the flat synthetic colors like phthalo, antwerp or indantron. Use ultramarine or cobalt instead.

Step 1

As always: start from the back, paint the “sky” with bluish and brownish color, both mixtures of blue and brown, preferably wet in wet so that the colors flow into each other. Save some white for the snow on the tree trunks and some of the branches, The left out white does not have to be carefully done, fast and approximate is good enough, because you cover small flaws with darker color later.

Then paint with a little bluish color markings of the road in the snow, a few brushstrokes are enough. Preferably wet in wet so that it does not become too obvious. Also paint the fence on the left. To give the impression of depth in the image, the foreground should be a little darker but keep white in the middle of the image.

Step 2

Paint some contours of treetops in the distance. I also used red for this, although you can barely see it in this photo. Paint around the previous left out white on the tree branches and trunks. I saved a few more trees and branches than in step 1. The more white left the more snow on the trees, you have more to work with. You can always paint over it with a darker color if you remove the left out white later.

Step 3

Now it’s time to get a little more careful. Paint with a small brush tree branches, do not paint over the snow on branches and trunks. Keep in mind that the branches of a tree also grow forward and backward in relation to the viewing angle. The trees should look three-dimensional, not flat as silhouettes. You should spend some time on this step, do not be in a hurry when painting branches. Also paint poles on the fence.

Step 4

More small branches and darker color on already painted trunks and branches. If you want, paint the figure and the stump there (I changed the stump, it is way too big in the photo), do not forget all the light trees in the background, they are needed for the depth of the image.